To Forgive

An alternative to revenge, is more problematic and yet far more effective. You can forgive.  Said with ease; done with difficulty. To refrain from taking revenge when you want to do so with all your being is agony; a self-administered torment, you forgo the appealing consolation of inflicting suffering as retribution.  You absorb the emotional debt, taking it completely on yourself instead of dishing it out to the deserving culprit. And still there is the obligation to do more than forgive.

There remains an obligation for the wrongdoer to be meaningfully confronted —at a minimum to constrain them, to protect others from being harmed by them. And, hopefully, to help them acknowledge their character flaws and stimulate them to become the better person they are meant to be. Note that this confrontation is not revenge. It is a confrontation motivated by love.

Only if you first forgive will a subsequent confrontation be temperate, wise, and gracious and thus likely have the desired effect.  Only when you have relinquished your resolve to see the other person wounded will there be potential for a change for the better in them. But there is a consequence to this... act of love.

Almost at the summit, we next move to the Left Side trail and consider Love and its companion, Sacrifice.